Preparation of monoclonal antibodies against insulin and their applications.

Monoclonal antibodies (MAbs) against insulin are useful for insulin assays because of their specificity and plentiful supply. We have produced four monoclonal cell strains stably secreting the monoclonal antibodies against insulin; further established subpopulation, titer, affinity; and identified the antibodies as being of subclass IgG(2b)(kappa), one strain, or IgG(1)(kappa), three strains. The smallest detectable level of human insulin by ELISA using this IgG(1) was 1.25 microg/L. The monoclonal antibodies have been used for analyzing insulin content from the sera of type 2 diabetes patients and normal subjects.